"Come on Paris, our Angel is waiting!" Christine Daaé called out behind her as she ran down the hall in the Paris Opera House.
A young girl of about 23 with straight shoulder-length black hair, smooth milky white skin, and cold grey-blue eyes went running down the hall after Christine. The two girls stopped in front of a door and Christine quickly opened it. Both girls hurried into the room and Paris sat down in the vanity chair while Christine stood in front of the full length mirror.
"Angel, we're here. I'm ready for my lesson," Christine called out.
"You needn't shout Christine, I can hear you just fine," a heavenly voice answered.
Christine blushed and glanced over at Paris. Paris Aldress smiled and swallowed hard as she heard the voice. The voice was absolutely beautiful, the flawless voice of an angel. That would probably explain why he was Christine's Angel of Music, she thought. Christine and her Angel began to sing and Paris closed her eyes as she became consumed with the Angel's voice. For Paris, the voice brought both pain and pleasure.
She herself had a voice like that and it had gotten her into a lot of trouble when she was younger. Her voice was believed to be the work of the Devil, not God. Her voice was beautiful, heavenly but not humanly possible, or so her parents and neighbors believed. Everyone believed she was possessing people to do horrible things. Her voice had caused fellow classmates to do awful things in school. She had been playing with her dolls in the courtyard when a large rat had scurried by. Paris had given a terrible shriek and began screaming for it to die as she whacked at it with a stick. Two young girls who had been nearby were seen stabbing themselves with sharp sticks a few minutes later. They died shortly afterwards before the doctor arrived. This sort of thing happened on many more occasions in the next couple of years until Paris was forbidden to speak at all. Any time she spoke after that she was severely beaten. Her back was now striped with scars from the beatings. After one severely painful beating Paris was ill for days and when she got better she pretended she had lost her voice and hearing. From that day on she pretended to be deaf and dumb, much to the relief of her family members.
'Why is he allowed to use his voice while I only cause problems with mine? I guess he was given his voice by God.' Paris began to smack herself on the forehead when she realized what she'd just thought. 'Of course he was given his voice by God, he's an Angel!'
"Is she alright, Christine?" the Angel suddenly asked.
Paris looked over at Christine as she pretended to feel eyes watching her. Christine was staring at her strangely and Paris could only imagine what the Angel looked like. Looking down Paris saw that she had been smacking her head in actuality instead of mentally. Quickly lowering her hand, she smiled quickly at Christine before motioning for her to continue her lesson. With one more glance at Paris, Christine turned back towards the mirror and the lesson began again. Paris sighed and played with her skirt as she waited for the lesson to end. It was hard pretending she was deaf and dumb but she was thankful she was able to pull it off. It came in handy on numerous occasions. She didn't know how many people had told her secrets that should not have been told and they believed they would be kept. Lucky for them, Paris would keep them. However, she had heard many that dealt with something illegal which had eaten at Paris' conscious for days afterwards for she could not tell what she had heard for then her own secret would be revealed. So she kept her mouth shut and just worked on honing her other senses. Christine stopped singing and after a few minutes Paris looked up. Christine turned to her and made a cutting motion across her throat indicating that the lesson was over. Paris nodded and waved at the mirror saying goodbye to Christine's Angel of Music. Paris then turned and left the dressing room.
Entering the changing room that all the ballet girls and chorus girls used, Paris sighed and changed into her dance outfit for practice. Picking up her toe shoes Paris left for rehearsal. She was surprised that she had been accepted as a dancer for the Opera Company due to the fact that she was "deaf", but because she could hear she had been able to perform her audition flawlessly. Because of that audition, the managers had hired her with out even realizing that she was "deaf" and so when they had found out they were so surprised at her talent they hadn't even thought to fire her.
All during rehearsal Paris prayed for it to end soon. She was forced to "listen" to the gossip of le petite rats. Most of their stories were about the dreaded Opera Ghost or who was sleeping with whom. Paris thanked God for her predicament because that meant she didn't have to contribute to the conversations. However, she did enjoy listening to the stories about the Opera Ghost, those she found entertaining. Paris did believe in ghosts but she did not believe that the Opera Ghost was an actual ghost. She couldn't explain why but there was something about they way he operated that seemed too human.
When rehearsal finally ended Paris and Christine went out to dinner with a couple of the other dancers. Paris listened to the girls talk about rehearsal and smiled as she sipped her water. When the conversation turned to the aristocracy Paris tuned them out. Christine was not so lucky. She had been seen in the company of a Monsieur Raoul le Vicomte de Chagny. It was rumored that they were a couple but Christine denied the accusations.
"My maestro does not want me getting involved with men right now. I can not afford to lose him now. He's been helping me with my singing so much and I must not get side tracked. Besides, Raoul is just a child hood friend, nothing more," Christine defended with a deep blush.
Paris knew that the Angel of Music was rather commanding and had indeed demanded that Christine not get involved in a relationship that could damage her singing career. Paris sighed as she wished that the Angel would pay that sort of attention to her. Paris had been falling in love with the Angel of Music ever since she first heard his voice. However, she knew that he wouldn't stay forever since he was an angel and would eventually have to return to Heaven or leave in order to instruct another hopeful singer or musician. Glancing at Christine she signaled to her that she had to leave. Christine nodded so Paris left some money for her own food then left for her flat. She was exhausted and wanted to get as much sleep as she could that night. She planned on staying late at the Opera House the next night to get some extra practice in and she needed a good night's sleep in order to do that.
Changing into her nightgown Paris readied her self for bed then slipped under the covers. Blowing out the candle, she pulled the covers up to her chin and closed her eyes. She fell asleep with the Angel of Music's voice singing to her in her mind.
Far below the Paris Opera House deep in the fifth cellar, a man sat at a beautiful black pipe organ. His long, graceful fingers danced across the keys producing hauntingly beautiful music. His head bounced along with the pace of the music and his long lithe body moved with the flow as well helping to emphasize the rhythm. He was clad in an immaculate black evening jacket and black trousers hugged his long legs. A steel grey vest covered a white dress shirt and a black tie was tied around his long neck. His unfashionably long black hair was pulled back in a queue while his bangs fell roguishly over his forehead and into his eyes. Over the right side of his face was a black leather mask that covered his forehead and stopped just above his mouth. At the moment his eyes were closed but when open they revealed a rather unique eye color. They were a grey blue with swirls of gold that made his eyes glow unnaturally in the dark. And the fact that they were lined with long thick black lashes just made them all the more alluring to look at.
With a flourish he finished his piece and waited for the notes to die before he took a deep breath and stood up to reveal his height of over six feet. Tugging on his jacket he strode out of the room and into a lavishly furnished living room with the grace of a cat or dancer. With a sigh he sat himself down in a black throne-like chair and stared into the fire. His mind was no longer on his music but it wasn't far from that topic either. He was thinking about a woman. Christine Daaé to be exact. She was improving vocally beautifully and he hoped to reveal himself to her soon. It was getting harder to pretend to be her Angel of Music when all he wanted was to tell her who he was and that he loved her. He had fallen in love with Christine Daaé when he had first heard her singing one evening in the empty Opera House auditorium. She had been a scared little thing and her voice had been small and weak but after singing for a few minutes she had let herself go and had produced a beautiful sound that had been untrained and yearning for guidance. He had just happened to be watching her from behind her dressing room mirror a few days later when she had asked her late father why he hadn't sent her the Angel of Music as he had promised. He had used that information to his advantage and had claimed to be her Angel of Music sent to her by her father.
However he was just a man, a man by the name of Erik. He was also known as the Phantom of the Opera, the Opera Ghost and that was a problem. Christine was terrified of the Opera Ghost and as soon as he told her who he actually was she would not even have to see his face in order to run screaming from the room. Such was his life, he thought with a sigh.
Now the other young lady with whom he was acquainted with was another story. She didn't know who he was and he was pretty sure she didn't know about the stories of the Opera Ghost so there was no way she could connect him with those stories nor could she connect him with Christine's Angel. Paris, at times, was a Godsend due to her predicament. Because she couldn't hear, she wouldn't know about the stories. The only problem was because she couldn't speak she couldn't offer him any advice on how to get Christine to fall in love with him. With a small smile Erik began to think about what he should do with Christine tomorrow during her lesson. He also planned on when he would finally reveal himself to her. Hopefully things would work out for everyone.